Indians marginalised as long as race-based parties exist, says author

Dr Carl Vadivella Belle is a former Australian diplomatic officer who was based in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1970s. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, February 15, 2015.Malaysian Indians will remain marginalised as long as political parties are race-based, an author and former Australian diplomat said today, pointing to the failure of the MIC to articulate the concerns of the grassroots.

Dr Carl Vadivella Belle said the problem with race-based parties was that they had to constantly appeal to their respective communities for support, deepening the ethnic divide among Malaysians.

“This over time is creating a negative process. Because instead of emphasising what Malaysians have in common, it emphasises how Malaysians are different from one another.

“And I think as long as that continues, the politics of marginalisation will continue,” he said at the soft launch of his book, "Tragic Orphans: Indians in Malaysia" in Petaling Jaya today.

But in the case of MIC, the party not only reinforced racial boundaries for support – hence putting Indians at a disadvantage as they are the minority community – but they also failed to voice out the concerns of the Indians.

He said the breakdown of racial politics and MIC was apparent after the 2008 general election, when then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in an interview that he had relied upon MIC’s advice when it came to tackling Hindu rights group Hindraf.

“The MIC assured them (BN) everything was okay, that it was all under control, there would be no challenge from the status quo,” said Belle, noting that, contrary to MIC’s assurances, Hindraf had largely contributed to the 2008 political tsunami that saw Barisan Nasional (BN) lose its two-thirds majority in parliament.

Belle said that in 2008, then MIC president Datuk Seri Samy Velly had also claimed no Indian would vote for the opposition party, only to lose his seat three weeks later in the general election.

“This is what happens when community structures lose traction of the grassroots and they no longer articulate grassroots concerns,” he said.

He said the government should look into need-based policies rather than communal policies, as ethnic polarisation and ethnic boundaries would only cause more problems over time.

Belle later told The Malaysian Insider that the Indians lost out in communal politics because they make up only 7.4% of the population.

“The Indians don’t have a large voice because they are the minority community. This is particularly the case when the communal structure fails, as is happening in recent years with the MIC. The Indians are more disadvantaged.”

He said if the education system was improved and proper vocational training and opportunities were given to the Indians, the cycle of poverty and alienation would eventually be broken.

Belle served as a former Australian career diplomatic officer before he was terminated for participating in religious activities.

He served in the Australian High Commission, Kuala Lumpur from 1976 to 1979 and was appointed Hindu Chaplain at the Flinders University of South Australia in 2005. He was also deputy president of the Hindu Society of South Australia from 2004 to 2007.

Meanwhile, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said Belle’s book showed that Vision 2020 had failed because the “united Malaysian nation” had failed to materialise.

“Let this book be a source of national debate. Let it be the manifesto for change in the country, so that we have no more orphans in Malaysia,” said the Gelang Patah MP.

He also urged for national reconciliation, and called on all Malaysians to set aside their differences in race, religion and political beliefs to save Malaysia.

- TMI